Review 4: Superman and Man of Steel

Review is our media and miscellaneous podcast where we get a bunch of tech geeks together, put them in front of mics, hit record, and then chat with them about movies, TV shows, video games, comics and books, and other popular, nerdy things. In this episode, Guy English, Georgia, Dave Wiskus, and Rene Ritchie pretty much do to Man of Steel what the Man of Steel did to Metropolis in Chris Nolan, David Goyer, and Zack Snyder's reboot of the Superman franchise.

Reader comments

Review 4: Superman and Man of Steel

Lois was brought aboard the Kryptonian ship so they could use their mind-reading device on him AND her.

After viewing the movie, again, the collateral damage was more by Zod than Superman. He destroyed some stuff when his mom was threatened but he wasn't experienced and he wasn't in control of the fight. Also, the Daily Planet staff members were able to evacuate the building so maybe the city buildings were not as populated as we assumed.

You guys keep saying over and over again that Superman doesn't care about people based on the fact that his fights with the Kryptonians is causing so much collateral damage.

Clark has spent his entire life helping people and moving on. Now that he's fighting people with the same power he has and things are getting destroyed - somehow that means he doesn't care about people? I don't get the connection.

This is a new, inexperienced Superman who is learning to use his powers. He has never raised a fist to anyone in his life. And now he has to fight these Kryptionians who are born and bred to fight. Kal is doing the best he can. I'm sure that there will be huge repercussions to his actions in the sequel.

This is a new take on Superman. His earth father who was supposed to instill in him the moral compass is flawed. He tells Clark to hide his abilities and not use them even if it means saving lives. His actions in MOS are going to forge him to the hero we all have come to know. He's not there yet.

I think the beginning of the movie should have been the rocket crashing to earth with the baby in tow. Flash back later with the planet blowing up and whatever. And there has to be a reason why the Kryptonians couldn't travel to distant planets. It also doesn't make sense that Jor-El KNEW Kal would be a "god" on Earth. If that much is known, wouldn't you migrate over there a long time ago (unless you couldn't but that's never explained)? Hey, there's this planet out there that makes us "god" like.

Maybe the planet puts off a certain type of radiation that they need over time that keeps them on Krypton. Maybe Kal leaving as a baby was able to overcome it. Later, after the planet explodes, these fragments become deadly to him.

Does it make any sense? It's not any worse than what they actually had in the movie. Why did every outpost seem abandoned? The matrix babies. The codex. Flying bugs?? Ok...But IMO, they needed to establish firmly why these advanced Kryptonians are not everywhere.

I've no problem with a new take on Superman. But have it make sense. This movie had great special effects. It's worth the ticket for these alone. But the story was less than half baked and we could sit here all day adding to the list of what was wrong with it. If you're going to do a "new take" with an iconic figure despite having tons of source material to draw from, then it has to be much better than this.